Speaker:  Dr. Wenjing Sun
Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH, USA

Seminar Title: "Myelin maturation and plasticity from development to adulthood”

Efficient signal propagation in the central nervous system (CNS) relies on the precise myelination of axons by oligodendrocytes. Myelination undergoes dynamic remodeling and refinement from early postnatal development to adulthood. Myelinating oligodendrocytes are differentiated from oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). OPCs actively regulate myelin development, adulthood adaptation and remyelination following injury by controlling their proliferation and differentiation rates. In addition to a series of intrinsic programs governing this process, neuronal activities heavily regulate OPC proliferation and differentiation. Neurons make direct synaptic contacts with OPCs, providing a functional entry point through which neuronal activity can instruct OPC behavior. This talk will focus on our evolving understanding of how neuronal inputs control OPC dynamics, and whether this regulatory mechanism shifts as the CNS matures.

Dr. Wenjing Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. Her main research program investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling central nervous system (CNS) myelin formation and repair in health and diseases. Her technical expertise mainly lies in electrophysiology in various ex vivo and in vivo paradigms, as well as live tissue calcium imaging techniques. Over the past fifteen years, Sshe has made impactful contribution to our understanding of the synaptic transmission between neurons and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) using a combination of electrophysiology, 2-photon glutamate uncaging and 2- photon Ca2+ imaging approaches. My discovery dDuring myher postdoctoral work, Dr. Wenjing Sun demonstrated that although not firing action potentials, OPCs are capable of turning synaptic inputs into Ca2+ events (Sun et al. eLife, 2016). Since joining The Ohio State University, her lab has established a multidisciplinary technical expertise in genetic models, in vivo demyelinating injury models, optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations, slice and in vivo electrophysiology recordings, and two confocal microscopy systems for glutamate uncaging, live confocal imaging as well as fixed slides laser-scanning experiments. She is currently funded by a NINDS R01 focusing on deciphering cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling activity-dependent myelination.

Selected Publications:

1. Johnson H, Beall M, Latifi S, Peng J, Sun W. Developmental Profiling of Structural and Functional Maturation in Mouse Corpus Callosum. Glia. 2026 Jun;74(6):e70152. doi: 10.1002/glia.70152.
2. Sun W, Dion E, Laredo F, Okonak A, Sepeda JA, Haykal E, Zhou M, El-Hodiri HM, Fischer AJ, Silver J, Peng J, Sas A, Tedeschi A. In vivo programming of adult pericytes aids axon regeneration by providing cellular bridges for SCI repair. Mol Ther. 2025 Aug 6;33(8):3968-3993. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.04.020.
3. Nithianandam P, Liu TL, Chen S, Jia Y, Dong Y, Saul M, Tedeschi A, Sun W, Li J. Flexible, Miniaturized Sensing Probes Inspired by Biofuel Cells for Monitoring Synaptically Released Glutamate in the Mouse Brain. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2023 Oct 16;62(42):e202310245. doi: 10.1002/anie.202310245.
4. Vana NS, van Loo KMJ, van Waardenberg AJ, Tießen M, Cases-Cunillera S, Sun W, Quatraccioni A, Schoch S, Dietrich D. Early cortical oligodendrocyte precursor cells are transcriptionally distinct and lack synaptic connections. Glia. 2023 Sep;71(9):2210-2233. doi: 10.1002/glia.24388.
5. Tedeschi A, Larson MJE, Zouridakis A, Mo L, Bordbar A, Myers JM, Qin HY, Rodocker HI, Fan F, Lannutti JJ, McElroy CA, Nimjee SM, Peng J, Arnold WD, Moon LDF, Sun W. Harnessing cortical plasticity via gabapentinoid administration promotes recovery after stroke. Brain. 2022 Jul 29;145(7):2378-2393. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac103.
6. 6: Matthews EA, Sun W, McMahon SM, Doengi M, Halka L, Anders S, Müller JA, Steinlein P, Vana NS, van Dyk G, Pitsch J, Becker AJ, Pfeifer A, Kavalali ET, Lamprecht A, Henneberger C, Stein V, Schoch S, Dietrich D. Optical analysis of glutamate spread in the neuropil. Cereb Cortex. 2022 Aug 22;32(17):3669-3689. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab440.
7. Heflin JK, Sun W. Novel Toolboxes for the Investigation of Activity-Dependent Myelination in the Central Nervous System. Front Cell Neurosci. 2021 Nov 2;15:769809. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.769809..
8. Sun W, Larson MJ, Kiyoshi CM, Annett AJ, Stalker WA, Peng J, Tedeschi A. Gabapentinoid treatment promotes corticospinal plasticity and regeneration following murine spinal cord injury. J Clin Invest. 2020 Jan 2;130(1):345-358. doi: 10.1172/JCI130391.
9. Tognatta R, Sun W, Goebbels S, Nave KA, Nishiyama A, Schoch S, Dimou L, Dietrich D. Transient Cnp expression by early progenitors causes Cre-Lox-based reporter lines to map profoundly different fates. Glia. 2017 Feb;65(2):342-359. doi: 10.1002/glia.23095.